


All Mixed Up

by Chocolate_milk



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M, Misunderstandings, Summer Vacation, bakura is dumb, whats new lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 22:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18765754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolate_milk/pseuds/Chocolate_milk
Summary: It's summertime and something strange is going on. It's a time for love but nonetheless it's hard getting your feelings known.





	All Mixed Up

**Author's Note:**

> OK I don't know what I think about this but since I completed it thought I may as well just post it... was that a bad idea? Who knows. Honestly though, I feel like making more stories in this universe cause I love the whole slice of life Yami's at school au idk. Maybe I'll do that... maybe I won't.  
> Hope you enjoy! <3  
> (also if you see any typos or formatting errors, let me know)

"So..." Malik, Bakura's singular accomplice because no one wanted to be his 'friend', said with a gleam in his eye that told him he was less than convinced. "You told poor little Ryou that you didn't care about what he thought? Threw your homework out the window? Said fuck the authority, stormed out to come to the beach with the Ishtar's? What a mess."

Bakura puffed his chest out to hide the fact he innerly felt like he was deflating, dropping down to sit next to Malik on the florescent towel laid over the sand. Malik still had a considering look on his face and Bakura ignored it.

"Yes, yes and no. You dragged me here." Bakura rested his head on his knee, glaring to the side at Malik. "I don't know why they bother to call it summer vacation when really it's just do your schoolwork at your house for a month and a half. Back in my time--"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it you old man." Malik squatted Bakura on the head, covering up the fact he wanted to give the past-spirit an understanding pat. As concerning as it was, Bakura accepted violence a lot easier than friendliness-- but Malik understood, he wasn't good at the sappy stuff either. "I'm not used to it either, school life and such. This year's been tough for all of us to adjust, did you expect any different?"

Bakura grumbled to himself, hitting Malik's hand away. "Don't call me stupid! I just don't get the point of it all!"

"That's the definition of stupid," Malik said, putting his index finger up unhelpfully. "I didn't call you stupid before, though, think you projected that onto me. F-Y-I, the point is to prepare you for the adult world and, boy, after living as a crime leader I thought I knew it all but school's shown me just how much I need to learn."

Bakura sneered and Malik shrugged at him. The smoldering heat seemed to be bringing something out of them.

"Good for you." Bakura abandoned using the term 'Fool' after being labelled edgy by nearly everyone but now he was seriously considering bringing it back. "I don't need to learn about the adult life because I've already lived it. I'm not you, Malik. Idiot."

Malik rolled his eyes, he was well used to Bakura's fiery temper but, god, was it getting old.

"See no logic, hear no logic, speak no logic." Bakura's lips obviously tightened, then. "Weren't you sixteen? Back in Egypt, that is."

Bakura upped and went to desert the flashy male beside him, huffing. He didn't bother much with violent confrontation anymore, not since his knives had been taken off him. A fact of the modern world that made him wonder when times became so complicated.

Things used to be so simple! He could do what he wants, be what he wants and back then the authority had been so stupid he may as well have been able to kill who he wants too.

"Hey!" Malik called over to him, still lounging and not bothering to stop him or anything like that. "It's summer, it's the beach. These are the simple things in life that people tell you to cherish. How can you be so...."

Malik had begun to sound like someone else so Bakura stomped away.

Stamped away to someone who would understand better. Marik Ishtar, the crazier of the pair, unlike Malik who renounced hatred when he started Therapy (Bakura shuddered), hatred was all Marik was.

It was unlikely Marik would understand Bakura's hatred of school and all things Domino high, mostly because Malik wasn't really mentally sane enough to make it into school himself. But, he hated most things, so at least he would get empathy. Then again, Marik was too, seeing a shrink (per Ishizu's insistence) but that couldn't change him too much. Bakura wouldn't know since he hadn't spoken to Marik since they fell out back in Battle City.

Once a dark entity, always a dark entity. Yeah, Bakura agreed with himself, that was how it went.

"Hey," Bakura said, standing next to Marik who was crouched in the hot sand. He was bigger than Malik and more muscly, his hair was as ridiculous as usual (but no one could beat Atem in the ridiculous hair category) and he was about as competent as a six year old.

Bakura could see that, because Marik was crouched down, with a bucket and spade, making himself a sand castle. His eyebrow twitched at the sight, it was just aggravating. This guy had won cards against him?

"What is it, you blustering fool?" Marik looked up at him with dried ice-cream around his lips.

Bakura took a long look at Marik, inwardly rethinking his life choices-- confining-- not that that was what Bakura had been doing-- confining in Marik would be a shitty idea. Worse than Malik even.

After a moment of thought he changes his approach.

"How's the shrink going? Finally giving up on you? Someone like you I imagine isn't even worth fixing," Bakura jabbed his finger against Marik's forehead, which was veining up. Bakura could feel a cruel smirk crossing his features, he didn't really know why he didn't stop then, but he didn't. When he prodded the skin of Marik's face with his finger he felt a familiar dark gloom overcome him. "See? Empty. If they fixed you I don't know if there'd be anything in there left."

The sounds of the ocean waves crashing against the shore was relaxing, as well as the lighthearted chatter that floated through the entire beach and seemed to put everyone at ease. You could just sit back, relax, that was what this vacation was all about after all.

Marik's war cry was enough to turn a few, or a lot, of heads their way as he launched his plastic spade at Bakura's head. Bakura ducked, cackling to himself before the sandcastle bucket hit him head on.

.

The world seemed hazy for a while.

Floating.

Like he was just floating.

It felt like Bakura was just floating through a river of soft cushion-y clouds. Toward a bright light that he couldn't decipher. Toward a warm, glowing light.

He scrunched up his eyes as he got too close. Now that he thought about it, he didn't feel all that comfy anymore, his chest felt tight, something was wrapped tightly over his mid section and his head hurt like a bitch. Seriously. The longer and more he felt himself thinking the more his head pulsated painfully.

He groaned, which seemed to reactivate his hearing, picking up on the muted chattering around him and his own voice. He tried to ask where he was, but all he heard was himself mumbling incoherently. Great...

"....ou.......ard..."

"......ouly injured.......anant damage..."

He could vaguely hear Marik cracking up in evil laughter too close for comfort. He groaned again. Upon hearing Marik it all started coming back too him. Being hit in the head with a bucket full of wet sand. His teeth grit together.

The pounding in his head was beginning to make sense but sense wasn't always positive. Bakura couldn't help himself, his impulse control was shockingly low to none for someone who used to be so good at restraining himself. As a thief he had had to be.

But as a hormonal teenage boy, Bakura let his body go, mustering up all his energy into his arm. He whacked his arm in the direction of Marik's maniacal laughter, which three-folds.

"Ow!"

Shit. That sounded like Malik.

"Bakura!" That was Ishizu, she had a nagging voice that only an older sister could possess. "Is he still unconscious, Malik?"

No. Bakura completely stilled himself, trying to seem completely out of it still. Which he kind of was, but since he hit Malik he seemed to be waking up a lot faster than before. As always, life always was as inconvenient as it could be! He could vaguely feel hot air being fanned onto his face, a sure sign that Malik was checking how conscious his actions were.

"I can't tell," Malik said, a pained edge to his voice, a hint of shame at his own ignorance. "Shit!... Alien hand syndrome or something...."

Bakura's eyes waiver and he falls back to sleep.

.

"They fought, seriously?" Ryou asked, arms crossed. Disappointment was apparent in his expression and demeanor. He generally wasn't so open-book-ish but sometimes you had to show how not angry you are. Just disappointed.

Ishizu nodded curtly, staring over at Bakura who was laid flat face down on the couch. He seemed more grumpy than hurt; tensing up every time he heard Ryou speak.

Malik let out a dry chuckle. "Wouldn't call it a fight. It only lasted a second, really, probably just a knock out. One second he was up and about bitching about summer vacation, next minute he was lying down with a pile of sand on his face," Malik explained helpfully, watching Ryou send Bakura's back a long withering look before snapping back to them.

"He's still mad about the holidays?" Ryou questioned, mostly to himself before addressing the siblings. "Thank you so much for bringing him back in one piece, especially since he's been so troublesome. Can I get you two a drink, or, just anything really..?"

On the sofa, Bakura was wondering if the holidays could get any worse. Definitely still mad.

"No, we couldn't," Ishizu said for them, as Malik tried to interject otherwise, glancing towards her brother. "We have Rishid watching over Marik in the car, it wouldn't be fair on them."

"Oh, well, another time then?" Ryou said lamely. "They can come in too, though if they want." He already kind of knew what the answer was but it was always polite to throw around a few suggestions before the fact.

They all glanced toward Bakura who was still grumbling on the couch.

"It's probably not the best of ideas for Bakura and Marik to meet again so soon," Ishizu had a tone of sureness. With teenage boys tempers were always high so it was best to keep them at a distance. Besides, the house was clean, shinily clean, if Marik Ishtar came into a mess-less house, it wouldn't be left that way for long.

"Yeah, no," Malik said, chuckling to himself. Ryou nodded. Malik found his eyes make their way back to the white-haired spirit on the sofa with a slight glare. "Can I have a second?"

Once he got his OK, Malik sauntered over to the moping Bakura.

"I hope he didn't cause to much trouble," Ryou said again, now alone with Ishizu. He wasn't that good at talking to girls so the topic always ended up being recycled but that couldn't be helped-- though he truly did feel remorseful that his Bakura could have ruined a family trip when the Ishtar's were one of the families he hoped only the best for. "He hasn't been himself lately, he was probably looking for a fight to begin with."

He sighed and Ishizu sent him a knowledgeable look and a comforting smile. Bakura had been grating on his nerves too often recently. Way too often. Like he wanted them to fight, he wanted to ruin any speck of relationship they might've or could've had.

"Fear not, I live with two boys his age," Ishizu had a knowing eye which glinted and her words were calm and steady. "Like children in need of attention," she said vaguely, turning to gaze at Bakura who was now stood up on the couch cross armed looking down at Malik.

Ryou looked at Ishizu inquisitively before following here gaze over to Bakura's ominous form. "Bakura!" He complained, "Don't stand on there, that was expensive."

She was right, Ryou thought with a put-off sigh, living with Bakura was just like having an unruly kid.

What's that about attention?

.

"Why does he have to be so difficult?" Ryou moaned, sat at the kitchen table, head held in his hands.

.

"Why does this have to be so difficult?" Bakura said, half muffled by the sofa cushion he'd fallen head first onto.

.

They were strangely in sync but that was a side affect of being Light and Darkness, two parts of the same being. Two souls entwined. They were already closer than they knew, but it was always hard to unearth these things.

The microwave dinged and alerted Ryou that dinner was ready. He pulled himself from his chair to retrieve the meals and place them on the dining table. He opened the microwave door and grabbed the two plates out. He stared down at the ready meals, nothing too fancy.

Ryou found himself sighing. Out of pure habit he'd chucked in two, but seeing the mood Bakura was in, Ryou guessed one was going in the bin. He considered to himself, still staring at the food, before deciding he may as well ask Bakura first; to perhaps prevent needless waste, if nothing else.

"Bakura!" Ryou called through, hearing his voice echo back through to him but no reply from Bakura. Not that he was too shocked, Bakura seemed quite content with having nothing to do with him some days, well, most days.

In fact, apparently, Bakura had been planning to go on an actual summer vacation abroad-- alone-- or, with one of the Ishtar's, who knew. It was only hearsay but to put it lightly, Ryou was just a little miffed. Of course, he didn't mind if Bakura wanted to go exploring, he would have encouraged that much.

But Bakura still hadn't mentioned it to him.

To add insult to injury, Ryou had heard all this from Atem. How did he know!?

Ryou took a deep breath, his chest all tightened up. "Bakura!" He shouted again, "Do you want some dinner!"

He heard some inaudible muffled groaning from the living room and frowns to himself. He stared down at the food again, feeling like just chucking it away to be petty. He shook the thought off, he wouldn't do something like that, deciding to track Bakura down instead.

He scouted down Bakura to find the other male with his 3DS in his hands, still lying tummy-down on the sofa, an amount of discarded candy wrappers next to him. Bakura seemed clueless and continued button mashing, chewing without a care in the world.

"Bakura..." Ryou couldn't help the chastising tone out his voice, "why are you eating that so close to dinner? You won't have an appetite, then."

Bakura shrugged, glancing up at him quickly, showing off the budding bruise on his forehead, before turning back to his device.

Ryou felt a little disheartened, it really was like talking to a brick wall. He wondered if the other hosts ever felt this way? Not Yugi, he knew that much. He cleared his throat and tried to shoo the thoughts away. "Well, dinner's done. You should have yours soon... if you want it... or it'll go cold."

"Fine, noted," Bakura said sharply, huffing at the DS.

Ryou felt affronted, turning and leaving the room. He wandered to his bedroom and got his homework. It wasn't the smartest idea to do the work whilst eating but he may as well make the most of having the extra space on the table. It wasn't like he was a messy eater or anything.

He grabbed a few sheets of homework he needed to work through, making his way back to the kitchen.

Once he got to the kitchen he stared at the meal for two set out on the table, he sighed and put Bakura's plate on the counter. "Don't know why I bother.... He obviously doesn't like spending time with me."

Ryou sighed once again, sitting down at the table and spreading his homework out around the table. It felt a little lonely.

He took a mouthful and read through one of the worksheets, furrowing his brows. The more he looked the more the letters and numbers seemed to swirl off the page, out his head, turning into something unintelligible. He put his head in his hands, placing his fork down, he just couldn't concentrate.

Ryou groaned, this wasn't like him at all. But he wasn't an idiot and he was done denying it, he was unbelievably upset that Bakura-- his own Darkness-- decided he needed to escape him abroad, for some reason. Or maybe not even to escape him, perhaps he'd plain forgotten to alert Ryou of this. That thought stabbed even harder. Had Bakura forgotten him, did he never pass the other's mind.

It wasn't fair, not when Ryou felt the way he did... not when his heart would beat so loudly.... not when his chest hurt so bad.

He didn't cry a lot but now tears glistened in his eyes. He rubbed then fruitlessly, a more determined feeling overcoming him. His mother had always told him that when you loved someone you had to give them space, give them time to grow. If Bakura needed to do some sort of soul-searching, Bakura could do it.

He jumped, Bakura cleared his throat from behind him. Ryou glanced behind him immediately before turning back around in hope Bakura wouldn't notice his eyes were a bit red rimmed and glassy.

"Where's my food?" Bakura asked, staring angrily at his side of the table which was covered in worksheets he'd rather never have to think about again. Ryou gathered it up into a pile and placed it aside. Bakura glanced at Ryou's plate and scoffed. "You haven't even touched yours and there's no room for me. You're the one always insisting we eat together, well, you don't make it easy."

Ryou sweated, he felt off-beat after getting all upset and since Bakura seemed so moody there was no way Bakura wouldn't pick on him if he realised Ryou'd been close to tears before. That was a recipe for disaster, if anything made Ryou cry it was being made fun of by his fancy. He's just assumed Bakura wasn't eating today and hadn't bothered to prep himself for the mental strain if he was.

"Yours is on the counter," Ryou explained, motioning over to the monotonous plate on the counter-top. He stared down at his own food which Bakura had been correct to notice he had in fact only taken a single bite. "It's probably cold, I can heat it up again if you want."

"What's it up there for...?" Bakura grabbed the plate and plopped it down on the table and fell into the seat.

They ate silently. Ryou was right, the food was cold by then, it wasn't particularly tasty either. Everything felt tired, bland, just tedious even having to sit down facing each other.  
The conversation seemed unusually dry this day too, none bothered to say a word until Bakura looked up from the sludgy food on his plate, moving it around on his fork. Doing pretty much everything he could to not put it in his mouth.

"What's got you so upset?" Bakura asked, rather unsupportively with a frown. Upon finally looking up he'd seen just the state his host was in, pale face, trembling lips, the image of patheticness. It wasn't how he liked to see the boy, anyway. "I suppose this is about me fighting with Marik, isn't it?"

"It's not that," Ryou blinked rapidly to clear his eyes, shaking his head. He cleared his throat before continuing, "I mean, of course I'm worried, who wouldn't be? Marik's way bigger than you and also, you know, psychotic. But really, I'm just a bit stressed."

Ryou averted his eyes, that seemed to be the best way to do it, attempting to clear his head again. Bakura huffed and crossed his arms.

"Oh, please, I could definitely take him in a fight..." Bakura still had a frown etched over his features, he poked around his food a bit more. He gazed at Ryou, then toward the pile of homework at the side of the table. He quickly came to a conclusion, based on his own thoughts on matters like homework. "Why are you stressed during bloody summer vacation, anyway, huh? I recall you saying we had plenty of time to finish this stuff."

Bakura prodded at the pile of worksheets, barely daring to look upon it.

Ryou rested his cheek against his palm, sighing. "I know. I know we do have enough time. It's not that... It's nothing." Ryou tried his hardest to work up an appetite and stomach some of the cold meal. Anything to keep his mind and mouth occupied.

Bakura scoffed, unbelieving. "What else is there for you to be stressed about?"

Ryou gazed downwards, sighing. It wouldn't be wise to mention how he really felt, how stressed he was about Bakura, because of Bakura. Who knew how the hot head would react to something like that.

"Huh?" Bakura prompted him yet again, maybe to be annoying or maybe just a strange way of showing concern, either way, it began to chip away at Ryou's resolve. Bakura continued to frown stroppily at him.

"Nothing! Let's just eat," Ryou said, half heartedly forking the cold, kind of gross looking meal. He forced it down in the end, keeping a look of distaste off his face.

"No," Bakura said as though eating the grub was out of the question, pushing the plate away from him. A strange and intense look glazed over his eyes causing Ryou to look away. "What's wrong with you? Just tell me!"

Ryou shook his head rising from the table and making his way towards the sink instead, Bakura all but grappled his wrist as he walked past.

"Let go," Ryou insisted, flailing slightly. Bakura was just acting strange now. Why was he caring like this all so suddenly? "I told you, it's nothing. Let go."

Bakura grumbled, let go and crossed his arms. Ryou made his way to the sink with a peculiar feeling in his stomach, it wasn't like he wanted to keep things from Bakura but some things were best said unsaid. He put the remains of dinner in the bin, which happened to be near all of it.

He looked behind him to see Bakura hadn't moved an inch, sat only resembling a statue, positively still moping. Ryou tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, beginning to feel a little guilty. Bakura looked pathetic sat there like a toddler, not like a brave Thief King who used to prowl around the ancient times.

Ryou sighed another time, he felt like he was doing that a lot recently. He couldn't help feeling like maybe he should just tell the other the truth, how upset he'd felt about, well... what he'd considered a betrayal of some sort. Some things were just better off staying inside, right?

Bakura didn't need to know everything about him. He probably didn't even really want to.

But he certainly did a convincing look of saying that maybe he did.

Ryou frowned, no matter how worried or just a little concerned Bakura was seeming to be, there were still questions he'd like to have answered. Just where was Bakura going. Why hadn't he bothered mentioning it before? May as well bite...

"I heard from someone that you're going abroad," Ryou threw over his shoulder. The mood in the room turned even gloomier, Bakura let out a long withering sigh. Ryou frowned, so it wasn't just rumours, then? "Where?"

"We don't have to talk about that." Bakura sounded monotonous, definitely not excited or guilty.

But that didn't change Ryou's suspicions. The former spirit was an average to good actor, as Ryou was a bad to neutral judge of character. It wasn't exactly a tell all answer nor an answer at all really, more of a shut-down.

"Why not? When, where? You can tell me."

Bakura had glanced around to send Ryou a rather curt look, definitely more sour than before, if that was possible...

"Nowhere." Bakura huffed, dabbing his forehead with the palm of his hand.

Ryou finished off rinsing his plate, turning to go back to the table. His curiousity was properly piqued now. Now he'd asked he didn't know what he would do without a complete answer; supposed that was likely what Bakura had felt moments before and felt a little bashful. But there was no way Bakura's answer was as embarrassing as his.

He sat down to face Bakura who was sat sulkily. Ryou tilted his head to the side.

"Come on, it can't be that bad..." can it? He had to know what was going on now. This was a stretch but he had an idea. He took a long breath before smiling at Bakura bashfully. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." Somehow he felt like he would get the short end of the stick here but who knew.

Bakura's eyes snapped to him, no doubt, the gears were turning in his brain. Bakura smirked and nodded after much consideration. "Fine, you first."

"That's not what I said," Ryou put a finger up authoritatively, or at least, hopefully like that, "you tell me and then I tell you." He raised a singular eyebrow.

Bakura thought for a second longer before begrudgingly nodding back, "Fine, then."

Ryou made sure he was listening closely, he had a budding feeling that Bakura wouldn't repeat this story ever again.

Bakura made a few flashy hand gestures before he found the words to begin the story. He looked to the side, maybe a little embarrassed. "I just assumed, okay? Everyone's been talking about summer holidays for weeks, months. I didn't exactly know what it was." Bakura huffed another time, like he was stalling. Ryou was quiet. "I just assumed... I didn't know that holiday... vacation... had so many different meanings..."

The puzzle was clinking into place. Bakura looked like his pride hurt deeply to even relay the story.

"I just assumed," Bakura said again, eyebrow twitching. Ryou was almost sure that was the end of it for a second until he started again. "You know, a holiday, that means going abroad. A school holiday, well that must've meant a vacation completely away from school, no homework, no annoying people. Just me and my la-- just me at Tenerife. I've been planning for ages... there was something important I wanted to do that's ruined now so I can't.... Ugh."

Bakura finally sat back, looking drained as if he'd finished belting out his entire life story. He let out a long sigh before assessing Ryou.

Who was keeled over in his chair, holding in laughter that he knew once it started it would maybe never stop. Bakura scowled at him.

"That's why you've been so difficult, then?" Ryou asked, feeling lighter. It felt a rain cloud was lifted from above his head. Bakura just scowled in reply, not nodding or saying a thing but Ryou already knew the answer. "But why didn't you tell me?" A light smile crossed his lips but he felt pensive still.

Bakura looked downwards. Mumbled something.

"It was going to be a surprise, alright," Bakura said snarkily, daring for him to say anything else.

Ryou felt his head fall back into his head in shame or something like that, a giggle bubbling out of him. Bakura stared down at him judgmentally. Ryou finally sat up properly, leaning forwards towards Bakura with a smile on his face.

"I'd call you an idiot Bakura but I suppose I am too," Ryou said, hoping Bakura would get it. A flush covered his face when he met his Dark's eyes. "We're so stupid. I suppose this is why you've been acting up so much too?"

Once again, Ryou felt as though he already knew the answer. Bakura's face spoke volumes too, he was florid.

Ryou leant across the table, gathered Bakura's cheeks in his hands and kissed him.

.


End file.
